Levi Davis is coming out.
The 22-year-old former Bath and England rugby player came out as bisexual in an interview with the Mail on Sunday (September 13).
He is the first professional rugby union player to come out as LGBTQ, and first to reveal he is bisexual, according to Pink News.
He explained that he announced the news in the team’s WhatsApp group chat in a “spur of the moment” decision.
“I had hidden it well but I couldn’t keep it secret any longer. I had to tell them, all of them, not just a few. I didn’t want it to turn into Chinese whispers,” he said.
“Hi guys. I just want to tell you something that’s been eating away at me for four years now. I want to be open and honest with you boys, as friends and teammates. I’m bisexual. It’s something I have known since I was 18. None of you lot are on my radar…so it’s OK,” he wrote to his team.
“And then they began taking the p–s in a good-natured way, which I was relieved about. If they had been too tender-hearted, I would have been worried. I’m still a rugby player, after all!” he said.
Levi previously appeared on Celebrity X-Factor as part of rugby boy band Try Star, and felt “a sense of shame, because I felt, and still do, as though I’m not normal.”
He also said he “over-compensated” by sleeping with women.
“I felt I needed to be this macho man, which I still am, but it felt like I needed to reinforce this more,” he said, adding that he went on to drink heavily.
He joined Ealing Trailfinders in West London last month on a two-year deal.
He also hopes his choice will encourage others in rugby “to be themselves within rugby…thankfully we can now discuss mental health more openly. And in the same way, I want people to feel that they can be who they are and that it is OK to be who they are. Hiding who you are can kill you – and has killed people…I don’t know yet where I am going, but by talking today I can walk hand-in-hand with whoever I want and it won’t matter any more because it’s out there.”
“Just pull off the plaster and do it,” he said to players still in the closet.
“There are definitely others out there in rugby. At this moment in time, I feel so free. I am really, really happy that this is coming out and I can be myself.”
